Google may turn over information about third-party keyword purchases after being subpoenaed by a recreational flooring company.
Santa Clara University law professor and tech law blogger Eric Goldman alerted readers to the subpoena in a recent blog post last week, warning that this sort of legal action could give businesses …

AdWords not always helpful

I'm a member of the EVE Online MMORPG community and as such regularly visit EVE fansites with Google Ad sponsorship. 9 out of 10 of the adverts are for illicit sites selling in-game credits (ISK), the purchase of which constitutes a breach of the game manufacturer's (CCP) End User License Agreement. Thus in theory, no-one should use the links at all and so the website loses out on click payments. Conversely, people who DO buy the credits from these companies risk having their game accounts removed and thus the site loses out again! Google have always claimed they have no control over what content is displayed when adverts are put on sponsored sites in response to keywords on the site. I have never believed this to be true. If a GoogleAd is damaging the site sponsoring it, surely Google can be more responsible for the advert content?

My experience with AdWords

When I tried to advertise a music site with AdWords, almost all my words were rejected - I got the impression that either you had to sell everything to do with the word in question, or you were (for example) the only supplier of left-handed hamster prosthetics in the world.